Stepan Poltorak

Stepan Poltorak (11 February 1965-) was the Minister of Defense of Ukraine from 14 October 2014, succeeding Valeriy Heletey.

Biography
Stepan Poltorak was born on 11 February 1965 in Vesela Dolyna, Odessa Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. He joined the Soviet Army in August 1983, and he was an experienced man in the military by the time of his appointment as head of the Academy of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in March 2002 in Kharkiv. On 28 February 2014, President Oleksandr Turchynov appointed him commander of the Internal Troops of Ukraine, and on 15 April 2014 he became the leader of the Ukrainian National Guard after it was re-created following the Ukrainian Revolution. His third appointment of the year was Minister of Defense on 14 October 2014 after Valeriy Heletey was made head of the State Security Administration following his resignation, and Poltorak was the man in charge of defending Ukraine from the Donetsk People's Republic in the Donbass War.